United Broadcasting Service
UBS (an initialism of the United Broadcasting Service) is an American broadcast television network that is the flagship property of the UBS Group, owned by UBS Corp, a division of AT&T's WarnerMedia. The network was intended to launch on January 1, 2018, but the launch was pushed back to June 21, 2018, for a summer launch, with "UBS's First Night" ''as the network's first program. The network was formed as a result of UBS Corp's acquisition of Ion Media in 2014. UBS is the first network to launch with a full, 7 day schedule, eliminating the need for adding new programming to its schedule every year. Pre-launch and current history of UBS Corp In the spring of 2014, UBS Corp (known at the time as SurgeCo) acquired Ion Media, shortly after the acquisition, rumors began of Ion to be relaunched into a new network, as the company had been wanted to branch out into broadcasting for a long time. In the summer of 2015, SurgeCo announced Project U, a attempt to launch a new broadcast network in the United States. SurgeCo President Jay Johnson said in a press release regarding the project: "''SurgeCo is a ever-growing media company, from our inception in the summer of 2012, we've had a vision of being not only a content creator, but a content distributor, and we've done that through our digital brands and cable networks we've have been built off of, but now it's time to take that nationally and internationally, with the launch of this new united network. With the launch, we hope to build a brand through the network's News, Sports, and entertainment programming." In June of 2015, SurgeCo began selling off stations that were not needed, and reduced O&O ownership to the maximum of 39%, the most a company can own, then all stations switched to the VHF band, and began using a new temporary brand called "The U" in order to phase out the "Ion" branding, ("The U" would later be used as the name of UBS Networks's flagship cable network.) In September of 2015, SurgeCo announced the network would be called UBS, and would launch in mid 2018. In early 2017, SurgeCo announced that it would be renaming and reorganizing the company as UBS Corp, and began a round of acquisitions. Among the acquisitions were Sony Entertainment, containing the assets of Sony Pictures, Sony Music, and Sony/ATV. MGM Holdings and MGM's pre-1986 library, beIN media Group, Lionsgate, STX and Legendary Entertainment, Entertainment One and Entertainment Studios, Weigel Broadcasting, and more. UBS also extended the company's cable network offerings by buying Crown Media Holdings, AMC Networks, UP, Revolt, Aspire, Fuse, and more, for over $500 million. UBS later bought a spin off company called U Media, which was formed following The Buddy Company's spin off of both national and international assets that were deemed no longer needed by Buddy. UBS offered to buy the company for $3 Billion, but bought it for $2.5 Billion. UBS then announced that it would be buying Searchlight Entertainment Group, containing the assets that were not bought by Disney, for $250 million. UBS also bought Core Media Group, Banijay, Tinopolis, Celador and Endemol Shine for $700 Million. In late 2017, UBS entered talks to be bought by TimeWarner, and later agreed to be bought by TW for $25 Billion. In early 2018, UBS rebranded Fox Sports into UBS Sports and merged Turner Sports into the newly made division, UBS also announced the former Fox Sports and Fox News Networks to be relaunched as the UBS Sports Network and the UBS News Network. UBS also announced it's intent to launch both regional News and Sports networks and UBS's own streaming service, UBS Choice, UBS Choice will launch in mid to late 2018 and uses the same main infrastructure as ESPN+, and will be made in partnership with NeuLion. UBS later acquired NeuLion and renamed it UBS Digital, the company will handle the services and apps owned by UBS and will also develop UBS's TV Everywhere app, UBS Now. UBS plans to launch UBS News Now and UBS Sports Now as free online channels to rival CBSN and CBS Sports HQ. In early 2019, UBS spun off certain assets into a separate company majority owned by UBS and reused the Searchlight name and relaunched Searchlight Entertainment Group as Searchlight Group. UBS also bought Warner Music Group and merged it into UBS Music. UBS later acquired Mas Media for $2 billion, bringing Freemont and Mas Network to its networks division. UBS also bought the reminder of Searchlight Group, and made it offically a wholly owned subsidiary of the company. The company bought Cumulus Media and Beasley Broadcast Group to further expand into it's radio holdings. UBS Corp later expanded into new businesses such as premium cable with the launch of Matinee, Theme Parks with its acquisition of Cedar Fair, SeaWorld Parks, and Merlin Entertainments, Book Publishing with its acquisition of HarperCollins, Magazines with the acquisition of Bauer Media Group and Advance Publications, owner of Conde Nast, and Gaming with companies such as Electronic Arts, Valve, Sony Interactive Entertainment, and Epic Games, all joining UBS's gaming division. UBS joined The Buddy Company and submitted a bid for 21st Century Fox, by contributing half of the bid, with both companies contrubiting a combined $75 billion. However, UBS dropped it's bid when it announced it's intent to buy Viacom and it's networks along with Paramount Pictures and Paramount's former Television assets from CBS for $2.2 billion. UBS also bought the 734 Paramount Film library from NBCUniversal and added the combined library to the UBS Choice streaming service. With the UBS buyout, Paramount officially became the flagship movie studio of UBS's Motion Picture division, along with the networks being merged into UBS Networks and newly created divisions of UBS Networks. UBS Corp later became a minority owner of OMNI Entertainment, a media company formed by UBS founder and President Jay Johnson. UBS provided funding and later transfered a few of its assets such as TV Networks, digital properties, and film companies to the new company. In return, OMNI will produce and create shows and content for UBS and its networks. UBS bought Grupo Imagen to expand into Hispanic Media, and slowly began to integrate Imagen America into the Mas broadcast network. The integration was only partal, as UBS sold a 50% stake in Imagen America to The Walt Disney Company. UBS announced it's intent to aquire Hearst for $1.5 billion, at the same time, UBS place a $3 Billion bid for the bulk of NBCUniversal's assets, but due to anti-trust issues, UBS backed out of the bid, and eventually The Buddy Company, now owner of CBS Corporation, was annouced to acquire the assets. However, a last minute rebid by UBS Corp was not enough to change Comcast's mind as Omni Entertainment 's $6.25 Billion bid for the assets was accepted and the bulk of NBCU's assets were now under Omni's control. UBS later decided to sell off FX Networks to Disney in exchange for the entirety of Catching Sound Media, as a result, UBS and MBS are now jointly owned by UBS Corp, leaving the relationship between the two networks permanent. Launch and Current Form UBS launched on most UBS Stations at 7:00pm on June 12, 2018 with a special program called "UBS's First Night", a program showcasing shows and events that will air on UBS. Shows that premiered as part of the inaugural launch included comedies such as Foursome ''and ''Just the Two of Us, game shows such as Payback ''and ''So you think you Know?, Late Night shows Late Night Tonight ''and ''Up Late. '' Partnership with Catching Sound Media and MBS In late 2019, UBS and MBS jointly announced a long term partnership to form the American consortium. As part of the consortium, UBS and MBS will jointly air coverage of news, sports and several events, and UBS will buy a 25% stake in Catching Sound Media, and will invest up to $1.5 billion dollars for Catching Sound to work with. UBS also changed its legal name to UBS Corporation, but it is still known as UBS Corp. UBS Corp sold its remaining stake in Catching Sound to The Walt Disney Company for $1 billion, making Disney the sole owner of CSM. UBS announced it's intent to launch a bilingual Spanish television network in late 2019 to early 2020, but plans were scraped and dropped due to UBS buying a stake in Imagen America. UBS will continue to air spanish-dubbed versions of UBS shows and movies on The U En Espanol. Programming Schedule Entertainment UBS's Programming almost entirely consists of programming producted by UBS Studios, the network's own production company, Omni Pictures Television, and MBS Studios, with Sports coverage provided by UBS Sports, and News coverage provided by UBS News. News UBS has two morning news programs, ''Daybreak ''and ''The UBS Morning Show, while the network's nightly program is UBS News Tonight. UBS's newsmagazine is Scope. Sports UBS ties with MBS as the network who owns the most rights to sports events then any other network, here is the entire list of sports that UBS will broadcast. * MLB on UBS * NBA on UBS * PGA on UBS * PBA on UBS * NHL on UBS * NCAA March Madness on UBS * UEFA Europa and Champions League on UBS * NFL on UBS * NASCAR on UBS * NCAA College Football on UBS * NCAA College Basketball on UBS * MLS on UBS * UFC on UBS * USGA on UBS * Formula E on UBS * IMSA on UBS * NHRA on UBS * FIFA on UBS * Olympics and Paralympics on UBS * XFL on UBS * ''eSports on UBS '' Category:Fictional television networks Category:Fictional television network Category:Fictional television broadcasters Category:Fictional major networks Category:UBS affiliate